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Kvitova continues unbeaten Brisbane record

Brisbane

Sixth seed Petra Kvitova has continued her unbeaten record at the Brisbane International by starting her Australian summer with a gritty straight-sets win at Pat Rafter Arena.

Kvitova progressed through to the second round with a 6-3 6-4 victory over Carla Suarez Navarro, who pushed the Czech left-hander for 90 minutes in the Queensland heat.

After taking the first set in 40 minutes, the world No.8 looked set to cruise home at 5-2 in the second before a late fightback by the Spaniard, who ultimately spurned three break points to level at 5-all.

It gave Kvitova six wins from as many matches in Brisbane after claiming the tournament two years ago.

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The 2011 Wimbledon champion, who started this year at No.2 on the world rankings, will now meet Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the second round.

World No.36 Pavlyuchenkova accounted for another Czech, Lucie Hradecka, but was made to fight all the way before prevailing 6-3 3-6 6-3.

Poland's Urszula Radwanska also made it through to the second round by beating Austrian Tamira Pascek 2-6 6-0 6-2.

Scoring her first win in a main-draw match since the French Open, Gajdosova came from a set down to eliminate the Italian 4-6 6-1 6-3.

There was another Australian women's success on the opening day of the tournament with Perth late-bloomer Bojana Bobusic scoring a tense 6-4 4-6 6-4 qualifying upset of Czech Kristyna Pliskova in hot and windy conditions.

Bobusic joins Gajdosova, Samantha Stosur and wildcard Olivia Rogowska as the fourth Australian in the women's draw.

Brisbane baseliner John Millman is into the last round of men's qualifying after upsetting Russian Alex Bogomolov Jr 7-5 6-3.